Welcome to Paradise-Naples, Florida

We are starting off our tour heading down the street from home.

Palm trees line the street we live on.

Here we go, fasten your seat belts, not because people drive fast here==but you know-it’s the law. It is VERY laid back here, a much slower pace than this city girl is used to.

First off-Let’s head down by 5th Avenue, the upscale outdoor shopping area but before we get there we will give you a little peak at the area.

Just before we get to 5th Avenue there are some beautiful shops. I love all the different colors of the buildings. It is a total resort community. 1/2 of the year the population is considerably higher due to all the vacationers or people who live here during the warm winter months. These people are not only from the US but from all over the world. The temperatures are tropical year round. The evening low temps throughout the year are between 52 and 75 and the high day time temps throughout the year are between 73 and 91 degrees. People think it gets over 100 down here but the ocean breezes keep the temperatures down. During rainy season the humidity is high but it still never reaches 100 degrees.

There is lovely shopping and restaurants, at the exclusive 5th Avenue outdoor shopping area if you need a little shopping to keep you busy and not far from 5th Avenue is more shopping available at Tin City and The Riverwalk. If that’s not enough shopping there are several Outlet Shopping areas, antique shops and Flea Markets close by to gather treasures to remember your visit. While you shop, the hubby can golf-there are over 80 championship golf courses here and boating is always a must.

(Just a small boat, a lot of the big yachts have left for the Mediterranean during hurricane season.)

Tin city

Pazzo-yummy food

5th avenue building

Yabbas-Mmmmmmmmm, a favorite and if you get there before 5:30 (I think) they have a special early dinner menu. You get to choose from one of their yummy salad ( I love the one with praline pecans), an Entre’e and a dessert for less than the dinner crowd gets for just the Entre’e.

Want to see the beach? We are Super close to the beaches, so lets head there next.

(The entrance to the beach.)

The Naples Pier

Everyone wants to go to the soft white beaches. I love the sand here. It is so soft, it is like walking on powdered sugar. After a hurricane has gone through the Gulf, you can find amazing shells on the beach. After one hurricane, our favorite little island to go to by boat, Coconut Island, got destroyed and it no longer exists. You could walk that little island and find tons of sea urchins.

Now if you would like to live here and live within walking distance to the Gulf or have the Gulf in your backyard, be ready to put down some pretty hefty bucks. We have tons of celebrities and politicians that have a home in Naples and Marco Island-who you ask: Steven Spielberg, Jacqueline Smith, Tom Cruise bought his Mom a home, Mel Gibson, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Shania Twain, Mike Ditka, Larry Bird, Buzz Aldren, Bob Turley, Bob Seger-just to name drop a few names and there are many more. You can get into a high rise condo, near the beach, for a few million but a home-no way…The lots alone are over a million-try several million. People buy up homes for over a million dollars and then tear them down and build the house they want. It’s not the home that has value here, it’s the land. The median home price is around $4 million. The most expensive one listed on realtor.com is $23,000,000 and I am sure there are more that are listed privately. A cracker jack box sized lot that is close to the beach, but not actually water front property can run you around $4 million or more, without a house and these are recession prices folks. 3 years ago the price was 1 1/2 to 4 times higher depending on what you had to offer. Would you like to see some of these homes? Yes. OK, now please keep in mind that I could not get the entire home into the camera shot on many of these homes so you are only seeing a small portion of the homes but they are some delightful homes to look at and drool over and dream what they look like inside. There were several that I would have loved to have shown you but I couldn’t get a good shot with all the landscaping and trees and many are gated.

You don’t think this is AMAZING. I don’t either, with its sunshine yellow shutters and it hasn’t been cared for as well as some of the homes. It has probably been here since the 1930’s and most likely is the original owners-even if it has been passed down through the family. No one keeps these little homes. I tried finding it on Realtor.com but couldn’t-Yes, it’s for sale. The amazing thing about this house is that it sits 3 houses in from the Naples Pier. It’s not beach front but you can walk there. This baby will sell for Mucho Mucho buckaroos and then they will tear it down and build something big and beautiful. It is kind of sad seeing all the old homes that started this community being torn down but there isn’t enough land and if you have the money you can pay for the tear down and build what you want.

A couple of cute houses within walking distance to the beach.

NOW the Fun begins–be sure and click on the picture to get a better view.

This home goes on and on and on. I got 2 quick shots.

You can find every style-from an oriental flare, to modern, beach style, mediterranean…

This next house is being built right on the beach and it is amazing. I got several of it. I couldn’t get the whole thing in one shot. Don’t you just wonder who is building that house?

their beach view

the entrance to the beach by their house

the house next door is being built, as well.

This area will cost you and you aren’t even on the beach. The houses I just showed you are across the street from this area. In this subdivision $7,000,000 is JUST what you pay for a lot and these are not on the Gulf. They are across the street from the houses I just showed you that are on the Gulf.

A few more big houses




NEED 6 garages?

OK, so everyone is hungry so we will head back home so I can fix dinner but I will show you some more houses on the way home.

3 colorful houses




this one went on and on

We’re back on 5th Ave:

more shops

Condos on 5th Ave

Just a few blocks from 5th Ave:

Before we head home, a little more info: We are in the southwestern part of Florida with the Everglades directly South of us. So, we live almost, as far down South, as you can, (Marco Island is just past us) on the Gulf side unless you want to go live with the gators. Yes, there are lots of alligators here. If you enjoy golf-you would love Naples and if you enjoy the soft white sand-then Naples is the place for you. Like I mentioned just South of us are the Everglades and the extend all the way down to the tip of Florida. We are a couple of hours away from Miami-just head East or head North and in a couple of hours you’ll hit Tampa.
Bradenton is Southwest of Tampa and has a lot to see. If you go there, you have to stop by and see Snooty the oldest manatee. Click on
SNOOTY to see the museum where he lives. Most manatees only live to their teen years but Snooty is in his 60s and an AARP member. He was born in captivity and so he can never be released. He will only eat if he is hand fed.

We are in the perfect location. We sit between Naples Beach and Marco Island. We love going to Tiger Tail Beach on the Island. There are so many shells that are totally different than the shells you find at Naples Beach. This is so amazing to me because they are so close to each other. I didn’t have time to get over to the Island so I went to the Yacht Club website. You can go there as well to see more pictures and info.

This picture is the Jolly Bridge that takes you over to Marco Island. The first thing you see besides the water of the Marco River (which takes you to the Gulf of Mexico in just minutes)and the many islands that cover this area of the world (there are around a hundred little islands, with Marco being the most Northern island)is the beautiful Marco Island Yacht Club. We got to enjoy a family wedding reception at the Yacht Club, so I thought you might enjoy some pictures since I didn’t have time to run over to the Island as well.

Pool Pictures you say:

You spend a lot of time in the pool, cooling off and relaxing.

OR jumping in and having lots of fun.



and if you aren’t into jumping you can lounge.

We are back at my parents home. You walk out the back lanai and they have a pond and water fountain with fish and you look out at the lake.

This is a sunset pictures from the backyard.

One of the Subdivision lakes.

Are you ready to move yet?? I think my parents might be about ready to sell and these babies are only in the $200,000 range.